Huánuco

People have lived in the Huallaga valley for thousands of years. At Kotosh, just outside today's city, a sequence of temples was built and rebuilt over six periods of occupation; the oldest, of the Mito phase, include the Temple of the Crossed Hands, named after two mud reliefs of crossed arms dating to around 1800 BC. The site gave its name to the Kotosh Religious Tradition, an early form of Andean temple worship. Under the Inca the valley, then known as Pillco, sent young women to serve as acllas in Cusco, and the region was administered from Huánuco Pampa, high in the mountains to the west.

The Spanish conquistador Gómez de Alvarado founded Huánuco on 15 August 1539 at the old Inca centre, but the town was soon moved; by 1541 it stood in its present place in the warm Pillco valley, where the Higueras meets the Huallaga. In 1543 Charles V granted it a coat of arms and the title of "Very Noble and Very Loyal". The colonial town became a farming and trading centre on the eastern edge of the Andes.

Huánuco played its part in the War of Independence and again in the War of the Pacific, when guerrilla units raised here, the most prominent led by Colonel Leoncio Prado, fought the Chilean occupation in the Breña campaign, and the city suffered a massacre during the occupation of 1881–1883. The highway from Lima to Pucallpa made it a staging post between the coast and the Amazon, and in recent years growth in mining has added to its economy.

Huánuco's culture blends the highlands and the jungle edge. Its best-known son in music is Daniel Alomía Robles, the composer and ethnologist born here in 1871, who wrote El Cóndor Pasa. Other notable natives include President Mariano Ignacio Prado, born in 1825, and Colonel Leoncio Prado, who fought in Cuba and led the resistance to Chile and whose name a city school bears.

Catholic life centres on the cathedral, dedicated to the Lord of Burgos and the seat of a diocese since 1865, and on older churches such as San Cristóbal, built in 1560, whose tower collapsed in 2014.

Football is the main passion. Alianza Universidad, which plays in the national first division, and León de Huánuco, historically the city's biggest club and founded in 1946, meet in the Huánuco Classic at the 25,000-seat Estadio Heraclio Tapia, one of the highest-altitude stadiums in South America. Futsal, volleyball, handball and basketball are also widely played, and a newer 11,000-seat stadium forms part of a sports complex.

The city had about 197,000 people in 2017, spread over its three districts: Huánuco itself, Amarilis and Pillco Marca. As capital of the Huánuco Region it is the seat of the regional government, and the national university, Hermilio Valdizán, and the private University of Huánuco are both based here.

Agriculture is the main economic sector. The surrounding valleys produce vegetables, potatoes and cassava as well as a long list of fruit — avocado, mango, bananas, papaya, oranges, lúcuma, custard apple and guava — and the warmer lands grow coffee, pineapple, sugarcane and coca. The timber industry is important in the region, commerce supports much of the population, and mining grew sharply in 2023.

Daily life follows the rhythm of a provincial capital: offices and schools in the morning, a long lunch break, busy streets of taxis and mototaxis around the centre, and evenings in the plaza. The mild, dry and sunny climate is often described as good for people with asthma.

Huánuco's food draws on both sides of its position between the Andes and the jungle. From the highlands come potatoes, maize and hearty soups; from the warm valleys and the lowlands to the north-east come tropical fruit, cassava, coffee and juane, rice and chicken wrapped and cooked in leaves, the classic dish of the Peruvian Amazon.

Fruit is the region's great strength, and markets sell avocados, mangoes, papayas, oranges and guavas grown nearby, along with lúcuma and custard apple; the warm valleys also grow pineapple, sugarcane and coffee, and in livestock farming crossbreeding zebu cattle with native cows has given good results.

For everyday eating, small restaurants around the Plaza de Armas and Jirón General Prado serve the menú, the set lunch of soup, a main course and a drink that most working people eat at midday, and one restaurant a block from the plaza serves vegetarian set meals. Highland and jungle produce meet on the same market stalls, which is the clearest picture of where the city stands.